Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment–and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Here’s a collection of tips from the No Impact community.
5 years ago, I started walking and cycling to school with my kids. In the town where I live, people routinely drive their kids to school in vans, SUVs and station wagons on journeys of 2 miles or less, the most polluting. We’ve found this is great time to spend together. The kids arrive at school energized and at home at the end of the day decompressed. We’ve used the time to study spelling words, learn times tables and all the states and capitals. It’s saved me a gym membership – I walk 5 miles a day. It’s also saved us the $650 bus fee. Now my son is 11 and goes to middle school, he walks and rides by himself, giving him a great sense of independence and me a sense of freedom that I don’t have to play taxi.
On October 7th, I organized a walk to school day in celebration of International Walk to School Day for our elementary school. 150 kids walked that day, despite bad weather, about a quarter of the school population.
This post was submitted by Melissa Gough.
I have been making my own laundry detergent for over a year now and could not be happier with it. I’ve also convinced my mom, mother-in-law, and two sisters-in-law to do it, and they’re hooked too. I used to buy liquid detergent from a wholesale club for about $20 per 1.5-gallon bottle. One brand promises 110 loads out of one of these bottles. That’s something like 18 cents per load, which doesn’t seem too bad, right? But then I thought about all the packaging involved, not to mention all the resources consumed in its production, transportation, marketing, etc. Plus, many commercial detergents contain sketchy chemicals or fragrances that can irritate skin. Not such a good deal after all.
Now, by making my own detergent from a few simple, inexpensive ingredients, I spend about 5 cents per load, I don’t have to worry about skin irritants or weird chemicals, and there’s zero packaging waste. Oh, and my clothes are just as clean as ever. Laundry detergent is quite easy to make; a simple Google search for “laundry detergent recipe” will produce instructions for multiple varieties (liquid, powdered, etc.).
This post was submitted by Avery.
Gave away my only tv 5 years ago after giving up tv for lent.
I will “give up” something negative in my life every lent (or more often if I can).
Eventually, I will give up my car.
Currently, I have given up radio noise in my house and car. It’s peaceful…nice.
I am trying to eat more locally and healthy, especially, organic.
I am trying to not talk so much.
All this, one step at a time.
Thank you and best wishes to everyone.
This post was submitted by laura Simpson.
If you have an electric clothes dryer (NOT gas!!!) you can vent it inside your home during the winter. The moist warm air will improve comfort and reduce your heating bill.
There are many suggestions online. They range from routing the dryer vent to a bucket filled with a couple inches of water to catch the lint to tying panty-hose to the end of the dryer vent.
Disclaimer:
No matter what solution you choose, just be prudent and clean your setup often enough to prevent dangerous amounts of lint build-up (just like you already do for your dryer’s lint screen). ALSO, note that this will work best in geographic locations that have cold dry winters. If you live in a humid area, then you could potentially add too much moisture to the air and end up with condensation problems that could lead to rot or mold. Since this tip is extremely cheap to try out, give it a go. If you find condensation building up (water droplets on your windows or pipes), then you know this tip isn’t for your home.
This post was submitted by Joe Kissell.
->Bicycle to work, weather permitting. Fun and invigorating.
->Usually climb 8 flights of stairs to reach office. More exhausting than bicycling.
->Recycle (city pick-up, no big deal)
->Eat vegetarian. No problem as long because I still have chocolate or sugar.
->Compost veggies. I don’t take it out because my husband refused to place the bin by the front steps like I wanted.
->Bought a CSA farm share. The squash, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes are great but I could do without some of the greens.
->Use fans instead of air conditioning. Requires several showers a day.
->Use cloth bags instead of plastic at the grocery store, when we remember
->Replaced our windows and insulated our house.
->Set the thermostat at 68, day and 65, night. Wear sweaters.
This post was submitted by Marcia Landa.